Symonds joined Marussia as a low-key consultant in February 2011; his first job in the sport since the Renault-Crashgate scandal broke in 2009. This year he returned to the sport full time as the leading member of Marussia's technical team, but with ten races left to run is leaving for Williams where he will start work on August 19, replacing Coughlan who leaves Grove with immediate effect.

"Williams is a team steeped in success and engineering excellence and I'm honoured to be asked to play a role in returning the team to its rightful place at the pinnacle of Formula One," he said. "Sir Frank [Williams], Mike [O'Driscoll] and Claire [Williams] have put in place the foundations for success and I'm immensely excited to begin this new challenge."

He added: "I have thoroughly enjoyed my time with the Marussia F1 Team over the course of the past two and a half seasons. The team has developed immeasurably during that time and it now has all the right people and resources in place to achieve great things in the future. I wish the team the success it so richly deserves."

Sir Frank Williams said: "I'm delighted that Pat is joining the team. His technical capabilities and sporting successes speak for themselves and I'm sure that his knowledge and leadership will contribute considerably to the success that all of us at Williams are working hard to achieve."

Coughlan joined Williams in 2011 as chief engineer and replaced Sam Michael at the end of the season as techincal director. Despite a strong season in 2012, Williams has struggled for form this year and the team issued a statement about his departure alongside the Symonds news.

Marussia team principal John Booth said Symonds had left a solid structure in place for the team to develop on next year when it switches to Ferrari power.

"For the Marussia F1 Team, each new season has seen a significant step change in terms of our growth and development at every level of the operation. The extent to which we have progressed was particularly evident as we embarked on the 2013 season, when our performance demonstrated just how much we have matured from a technical point of view.

"We have some very talented design and engineering groups in place who have achieved great things over the past few seasons and who are excited about maintaining our current positive trajectory, boosted of course by our new powertrain partnership with Scuderia Ferrari. We would like to thank Pat for the contribution he has made to the development of that structure. We look forward to announcing plans for our continued growth when it is appropriate to do so."